MAN, IT'S GOOD HAVING HER BACK HOME!

 

MAN, IT’S GOOD HAVING HER BACK HOME!


She’s home. Karen is.

And she tells me all about her retreat,

she’s telling me now,

how she finished her quilted star

with all that light white fabric

and the shattered yellow points

separating and splaying out bang

into space in the landscape

of the universe, this, this,

shining linen. I open a jar

of peaches and dish some up for her

eating one slice myself while

spooning in the syrup. I eat

a shortbread cookie while I’m doing this.

She was gone with her girl friends,

Karen was, four days three nights.

It was cold in Idaho she says

and she didn’t have enough blankets

and even if she didn’t sleep all that well

she held her own. She had her trekking

poles to get around, so beautiful

by the lake and she had a good setup

for her sewing machine and gear,

so many threads and all that fabric.

She showed me pictures of the clouds

she took from the back seat of the car

on the way home, and I say, My God,

Karen, they’re stunning, Can you turn

these vapor shapes into cloth

and make a sky the way you made

that star exploding in all of its pointed

yellow against the linen, and can you

make a sky? You could, Karen.

I’d love to see it I’d just love to see

you try. She told me about the quilters,

the women, how she and her friends

were elders, the elders, and one woman

emailed her after she got home

and found a tic in her hair. You

better check mine, she says,

and I did. It was fun, and I didn’t find

a thing but loved going through her

hair like that with my fingers. She’d

had it cut the day before she left

and it looked good, so hip,

and I got a really good look at it

while massaging her scalp.

You can rub my back, too

she said after I take a shower

and that’s what we did.


Jim Bodeen

29 April 2024

WALK WITH THIS ON SUNDAY

 

WALK WITH THIS ON SUNDAY

        Blessed is the road that keeps you homeless.

                Dana Goia


The poets I can argue with,

even when I nod in affirmation.

It is what it is, I overhear

entering the temple.

Jim Bodeen

28 April 2024

ARBOR DAY PILGRIMS

 

ARBOR DAY PILGRIMS


    And trees. Think of their endless rummaging

    for light, their reckless greening, how flowering

    is barely regulated damage

            Jeanne Murray Walker


Entire yard blossomed

Blown down cherry petals

Liberate night sweat


Jim Bodeen

27 April 2024

WALKING INTO THE LIVING ROOM/REGARDING MY PILGRIMAGE (WALK BUT NEVER LEAVE HOME)---

 

WALKING INTO THE LIVING ROOM, AFTER CHANGING

FROM SUNDAY’S CLOTHES, I SAY TO KAREN,

(WALK BUT NEVER LEAVE HOME),

REGARDING MY PILGRIMAGE TO COMPOSTELA: KAREN,


Yes? she says.


I’m on my last 48 miles.


She looks at me again. Lots of signs to walk around,

I say. I’ve been walking the Development Route since January.

452 miles. Lots of Stop signs to walk walk around.

Walk the short block during television commercials. Nine minutes.

Four-tenths of a mile. Walk to the Stop sign

when cookies are in the oven. She says to me,

My friend is on a cruise. She got to swim with dolphins.

That will shorten the lives of dolphins I say.

Nothing personal about your friend on Facebook.


Camino de Santiago. How did I get here.

One day returning from the morning mile walk,

low sun enables one to see tiny blades of grass

breaking through soil. Work one tiny thing at a time.

Front porch room. Sweep dead leaves in Cairn Park,

dig up seedling Rose of Sharon trees for Xander

and an Autumn Pine for neighbor down the street,

Earth Day will be here next week. And

The Japanese Garden by Sophie Walker

from Inter-library Loan with a surprising

4-week lending period. Time for absorption.

Who would have guessed this walk.


A housing development in Yakima.

Northern Spain. Sahugún was the half-way point

weeks ago, seems like. No middle middle

as they say in baseball.


Santo Santiago—Saint James. A fisherman.

When Jesus came to the Sea of Galilee,

he was fishing with his father and John.

They weren’t having any luck when Jesus said

dip those nets in the water again.


Santiago witnessed the Transfiguration of Jesus.

Did you know that?

Saint James now. He spread the Gospel

He crises-crossed Israel and the Roman Empire.

Spread the word for forty years in Spain.


A monument on the Camino de Santiago

near the Spanish city of Sahagún

marks the geographical halfway point.

Café Bar El Trasgu, one of the best stops

for the caminantes on the Camino.

Located in the center of downtown Sahugún,

better than the Bar Luna down the street.

At this point, the pilgrims have walked 250 miles.

Los peregrinos. Caminantes.

Son cansados. They’re tired. Some are cranky.

Pinche this, pinche that.

Peregrinos mi culo. Son de la cocina.

Some have given up and flown home.


After the discovery of the relics.

St. James opening the 9th century

Plenary indulgence could be earned,

complete in every respect.

Caminantes somos

y en el camino andamos.


Caballero Andante just south of us.


Legend holds that St James’s remains

were carried by boat to Jerusalem to northern Spain

where he was buried, now

the city of Santiago de Compostela.

Saint James and all that preaching in Spain.

Returned to Judaea after seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary

on the bank of the Ebro River.


El Camino de Santiago—also called

The Milky Way

formed from dust raised by traveling pilgrims.


And now these last 48 miles.

Yakima and the short block. Four tenths

of a mile. I said that. The stop signs.

Los ultimos kilometros. Mas en kilomitros.

Another week. Seven days. What country am I in?

I’ll be sitting in the pew during Pilgrim’s Mass.

La Catedral de Campostela

I can’t wait to lay my hands on that pillar

inside the doorway to the cathedral.


But today, still a couple of miles,

a few things. Prepare the garden for May Day.

Wheel that tree to the neighbor.

I suppose I’ll walk a mile at Costco

en el trafico terrible—a dentro Costco no?

Las mujeres manejando sus caritos de la compra.

Shopping carts and John the Baptist.

The Baptist calling for repentance

and all this walking aisles inside Costco.

There’s been a cost to this walk.

And on this walk—I’ll be in Composite

in a week—no one arrives. I’ve learned that

walking. Others know, too. If we understood

that from the beginning, well, you know

where this is going. But it’s beautiful.

It’s nothing if it’s not beautiful. I’ve got some things

to put away before I quit for the day.

The rake and pruners. Shovel and gloves.

Those two pails I used digging up the trees.


Jim Bodeen

February, March,-24 April 2024



MY BROTHER WAS SELECTED FOR HIS LOVE





 MY BROTHER WAS SELECTED FOR HIS LOVE


Myth is the secret opening

through which the inexhaustible energies

of the cosmos pour into human

cultural manifestation

Joseph Campbell

The Hero with a Thousand Faces


On Chuck’s birthday (he’s the coach)

(and today he’s 73), he’s had a call

from a former player, and she tells him

she’s six months sober. Why these stories

keep happening with Chuck! This is not

a question. On the phone he says, We talked

for an hour and all we talked about was God.


This is the side of my brother who sings

when the moon comes out at the beach.


My brother is the evidence of a transcendent world.

One’s own mind turned inside out.

He finds the beam of light in a chalk line on the ball field.


Your brother, Jim

23 April 2024












 

FOUR QUESTIONS

 

FOUR QUESTIONS


Hat? Not on its peg?

Where in long walker’s footsteps?

Am I not home?


Jim Bodeen

23 April 2024

FALLING INTO THE LILAC BUSH

 

FALLING INTO THE LILAC BUSH


Waking early, knowing

Something’s wrong with last night’s pome

Get up, find that root


Jim Bodeen

20-21 April 2024

LITTLE PRAYER WALKING

 

LITTLE PRAYER WALKING

One tenth of a mile

These walks are Little Prayer

Blessingway again



Jim Bodeen

19 April 2024



SPRING RAKING

 

SPRING RAKING


Winter thatch snow mold

Dogwood blossom overseer

Cheerful white petals


Smaller raked doesn’t talk back

Lets your body lean, look up


Jim Bodeen

18 April 2024

TWO LOVE POEMS FOR KAREN

 

TWO LOVE POEMS FOR KAREN



TALKING IN BED


I love when you fall into bed that way


What are you thinking


About getting old


Do you want me to read you a poem


Sure


I knew you did

            Jim

        


KAREN’S PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

WITH MARASCHINO CHERRIES


She waits twenty minutes

after her cake comes from the oven.

It’s one of those family recipes

where you’re not told

how to do anything

and when she turns it over

onto the aluminum foil

cookie sheet, she says,

Oh, it turned out just like my mother’s.


Jim Bodeen

13 April 2024


MORNING EPIPHANY

 

MORNING EPIPHANY


Coffee ready as I enter

house before sunrise

after walking

empty dishwasher

wipe down counter

telling myself

I’m taking care of things


Jim Bodeen

10 April 2024

APRIL SNOW ON SATUS PASS

 

APRIL SNOW ON SATUS PASS


Midnight espresso

I would suspect the parrot

Such deep green feathers


Rivers of muted trumpets

Life times with Duke Ellington


Jim Bodeen

4-6 April 2024

JESUS NOW, JESUS, NOW

 

JESUS NOW, JESUS, NOW


     --for Pr A. M.

Jesus laughs.

Already that deep!

Water up to here!


The West Coast poet

said to me, Steps

tiny and wise.


The East Coast poet

said, I am an infant

beginning to run.


Jesus laughs.

Jesus now.

Jesus, now.


Jim Bodeen

25 March 2024

FOR THE LENTEN SOUP AND BREAD MAKERS

 












FOR THE LENTEN SOUP AND BREAD MAKERS


Walk one mile in rain

Patagonia waters

wait for you at home


Was I gracious enough

for the bread and soup?

My favorite bowl, indeed,

my favorite meal--

that first week, Mary says,

For each of you,

one small bowl,

take one slice of bread.


Jim

23 March 2024

FOR THE MUSICIANS DURING LENTEN SERVICE

 

FOR THE MUSICIANS DURING LENTEN SERVICE

                --Bart, Barb, Ruth Ann, Scott


On the day the band

opened for poetry


no one thought

anything odd


or out of order

Music had opened


hearts and minds

No one knew


how we came

to be in a garden


Jim Bodeen

23 March 2024